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Chocolat
and Vanilla are 10-year old witch girls from the Magical World and are
competing who will be the next Queen of the Magical World by winning
hearts.
On April
30th, all the witches in the human world will come together at Blocken
Mountain for Walpurgis Night. This is Chocolat's first time that she can
go and she is very excited to do so. Her bodyguards, Woo and Soul,
accompany her to the gala. Chocolat is shocked to find Vanilla there and
then Pierre and some ogres crash the party cause a ruckus. A woman
wearing a mask tells the ogres not to cause any problems. When Chocolat
gets close to the woman, she notices that the woman smells like
Cinnamon, which is what her mother, when she was alive, used to smell
like. One day, a boy from another school, Takamura, buys Chocolat some
ice cream. A week later, she runs into him again and he wants to start
walking her home with her after school so they can spend some time
together. When Takamura starts to like Chocolat, Pierre casts a spell on
him filling his heart with Noir. Chocolat has to use her magical powers
to save Takamura before his heart fills entirely with Noir. The next
week at school, a man shows up in the cafeteria and he has a special
spice he is giving away. He says that if you sprinkle the spice on any
food, you will be able to eat it and it won't have any calories. But
this is a trick by the ogres and Vanilla soon casts a spell and collects
Noir from hundreds of hearts. Chocolat realizes that she must do
something about the amount of Noir that Vanilla is collecting. But,
what?
Sugar
Sugar Rune: Volume 4 is a
manga book written and drawn by Moyoco Anno. This collection of five
runes (19 - 23) was translated by Kaya Laterman, Adapted by Nunzio
Defilippis & Christina Weir, and Lettered by Foltz Design. This book contains the following runes
(chapters):
Rune 19 - The First Walpurgis Night
Rune 20 - Pierre's Mission,
Chocolat's Suffering
Rune 21 - Who Does Chocolat Belong To?
Rune 22 - The Ogres Make Their Move
Rune 23 - Capture His Heart
There are
also some sections in the book for: A) From the Magical Artifacts Mail
Order Books, B) Honorifics Explained, C) About the Creator,
D) Translation Notes, and E) Preview of Volume 5, although the preview is
in Japanese. The book reads from right to left and back to front, just
like a book from Japan. This manga book is intended for readers ages 10
and up.
I love to
read books for people of all ages. But there is something about this
series that I just don't like very much. Maybe it's because the story
revolves around kids that are in fourth grade and they are all falling
in love with each other. Look, I know kids are growing up a little
faster these days then they did when I went to elementary school, but
kids generally are not dating in fourth grade. I should know, I was an
elementary school teacher for a while and still work in the school
system. Boys are really only interested in video games at that age, not
yucky girls. The other issue I have is with the artwork. I guess I don't
like it very much. So many of the panels are cluttered, which causes me
not to really look at them very intently. My daughter tried to read this
series when she was 12-years old and didn't like it at all. She also
didn't like the way the artist drew the eyes, which is way too big, in
both of our opinions. Sugar
Sugar Rune: Volume 4
continues the story about two girls vying to be the next Queen of the
Magical World. It is funny how Vanilla has become the evil one now and
Chocolat is the nice one. The artwork, like mentioned above, is
cluttered and funky. It is not even close to what I like looking at. The
story is hokey and a little scattered, but can easily be followed.
Overall, Sugar
Sugar Rune: Volume 4 is
not bad, but I sure wish it was a lot better. Maybe things will be
different in Sugar
Sugar Rune: Volume 5. I
can only hope so, but I doubt it.
I rated
this book a 6½ out of 10. |
